r 


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V 


7 


1.0 


I.I 


2.2 


Ifi 

ISO 

11° 


-Wig 

1.8 


Photographic 

Sciences 
Corporation 


L25  iu  iLb 


V 


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10X  14X  18X  22X 


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lils 

du 

difier 

jne 

lage 


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d'impression  ou  d'illustration  et  en  terminant  par 
la  dernlAre  page  qui  comporte  une  telle 
empreinte. 

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derniAre  image  de  cheque  microfiche,  selon  le 
cas:  le  symbole  — ►  signif ie  "A  SUIVRE  ",  le 
symboSe  V  signifie  "FIN". 

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filmte  A  des  taux  de  reduction  diffdrents. 
Lorsque  le  document  est  trop  grand  pour  dtre 
reproduit  en  un  seul  cliche,  11  est  film6  d  partir 
de  Tangle  supArieur  gauche,  de  gauche  d  droite, 
et  de  haut  en  bas,  en  prenant  le  nombre 
d'images  nAcessaire.  Les  diagrammes  suivants 
illustrent  la  m^thode. 


rrata 
to 


peiure, 
nd 


n 

32X 


1 

2 

3 

/ 


1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

i 

*mnttn»mmi»mfimimttm 


J*aS>Hyiw  mvfi>it-^^iiiti<>ft*irW'/iir'imMaos 


1 


I 


Belief  in  God  the  Essential 

Condition  of  National  Permanence 

and  Prosperity 


»>>■ 


f  A  Sermon 

Preached  at  the  Seventy-fourth  Annual  Meeting  of  the 
Congregational  Home  Missionary  Society,  at  Detroit,  Michigan 

June  5th,  1900 


r1^,  3      By  Rev.   Philip  S.   Moxom,  D.D. 

jO  of  Springfield,  Mass. 


The  Congregational  Home  Missionary  Society 

1900 


l.Mlj!jM<liiliUM4<ii«ll!iMI 


|||IIMW»|i|li|i|l<i''»" >'  —- — 


\V 


.<^ 


^^^ 

^■^ 


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V-? 


*7  r»  ►»<  rr  « 


BELIEF    IN    GOD    THE    ESSENTIAL    CONDITION    OF 
NATIONAL    PERMANENCE    AND    PROSPERITY. 


"  Blessed  is  the  nation  whose  God  is  the  Lord,  the  people 
whom  he  hath  chosen  for  his  own  inheritance." 

Ps.  xxxiii :  13. 


*f 


J 


T 


The  real  greatness  and  glory  of  a  nation  lie  not  in  its  material 
resources.  These  are  elements  of  strength  or  weakness,  according  to 
its  moral  condition.  It  is  as  true  of  a  nation  as  it  is  of  an  individual 
man  that  its  "life  consisteth  not  in  the  abundance  of  the  things"  it 
possesses.  Fe/tile  acres  and  mines  of  gold  and  silver  and  copper  and 
coal  and  a  luxuriant  commerce  and  prosperous  industries  do  not  make 
a  people  great.  The  real  strength  of  a  state  is  men,  and  only  character 
makes  men. 

While  ancient  Rome  had  virtue,  she  u^as  both  noble  and  invincible ; 
when  she  lost  that,  her  wealth,  her  provinces  and  her  legions  did  not 
avail  to  prevent  her  downfall.  The  rock  on  which  Prince  Rupert's 
cavalry  dashed  itself  to  fragments  at  Marston  Moor  was  the  moral 
character  even  more  than  it  was  the  muskets  and  pikes  of  Cromwell's 
Ironsides.  It  was  the  character  of  the  patriots  who  fought  under  the 
inspiration  of  great  moral  ideas  that  glorified  Lexington  and  Bunker 
Hill.  Gettysburg  was  won  not  merely  by  bayonets  that  could  think, 
but  by  bayonets  that  had  conscience. 

Battles  become  crucial  experiences  in  a  nation's  life  when  the  moral 
principles  of  the  nation  grow  incarnate  in  armies. 

But  as  the  strength  of  a  man  is  most  thoroughly  tested  by  the 
steady  strain  of  daily  life,  so  the  strength  of  a  nation  is  tried  by  the 
ordeal  of  prolonged  experience.  In  the  growth  of  laws  and  manners 
and  institutions,  in  the  evolution  of  social  and  political  forces,  and  in 
the  pursuit  of  dominant  aims  and  ideals,  the  truth  appears  that  a 
nation's  right  and  ability  to  maintain  its  existence  are  determined  ulti- 
mately by  the  presence  or  want  in  the  hearts  of  the  people  of  a  high 

moral  purpose. 

To  the  thoughtful  student  of  history,  there  is  revealed  in  the  pass- 
ing of  the  centuries  the  inevitable  execution  of  God's  law  that  the 


i 


morally  fittest  shall  survive.  That  nation  is  the  greatest,  the  most 
tenacious  of  power  and  the  most  permanently  influential  on  the  civili- 
zation of  the  world,  which  has  the  most  virtue,  the  purest  manhood  and 
womanhood — in  a  word,  the  highest  character. 

Blessed  are  the  people  in  whom  righteousness  is  regnant ;  thus  we 
may  render  the  Psalmist's  judgment:  "Blessed  is  thie  nation  whose 
God  is  the  Lord." 

The  recognition  of  this  truth,  that  not  material  resources,  but 
moral  character,  is  the  basic  element  of  national  greatness,  will  impart 
a  higher  quality  to  our  instinctive  patriotism.  While  we  exult  in  the 
richness  and  splendor  of  our  material  possessions,  we  shall  not  forget 
to  inquire,  with  a  seriousness  that  greatly  tempers  our  exultation, 
whether,  along  with  our  increase  in  wealth  and  territory,  we  are  pre- 
serving that  vigor  of  moral  life  without  which  the  splendor  of  our 
material  civilization  is  but  the  phosphorescence  tliat  transparently  veils 
putrefaction. 

There  is  no  graver  question  of  the  day  than  this.  There  is  none 
beside  this,  for  it  includes  all  others.  It  has  been  said  that  "peace  hath 
her  victories  no  less  renowned  than  war."  Peace,  too,  no  less  than 
war,  has  its  perils.  There  have  been  nations  that  came  out  of  the  ordeal 
of  war  purified  and  strengthened  which  yet  could  not  endure  the  subtler 
but  more  searching  ordeal  of  prosperous  peace. 

We  are  accustomed  to  speak  of  our  government  as  having  success- 
fully passed  the  period  of  experiment.  But  there  is  always  the  element 
of  experiment  in  human  government.  Our  heaviest  trials  are  still  to 
come.  This  modem  air  is  full  of  sharp  solvents,  and  political,  social 
and  religious  faiths  and  institutions  must  be  gold  to  resist  corrosion. 
And  always,  over  all  the  play  of  the  disintegrating  forces  of  human 
conceit  and  passion  and  selfishness,  is  the  irresistible  movement  of  "a 
power  not  ourselves  which  makes  for  righteousness" — a  power  that  is 
set  with  steadfast,  awful,  yet  beneficent,  rigor  aginst  iniquity.  "Right- 
eousness exalteth  a  nation,  but  sin  is  a  reproach  to  any  people."  An 
inescapable  Nemesis  follows  hard  on  the  track  of  a  nation  in  which 
morality  decays.  "History,"  said  Froude,  in  one  of  his  ablest  and  most 
serious  papers,  "is  a  voice  forever  sounding  across  the  centuries  the 
laws  of  right  and  wrong.  Opinions  alter,  manners  change,  creeds  rise 
and  fall,  but  the  moral  law  is  written  on  the  tablets  of  eternity.  For 
every  false  word  or  unrighteous  deed,  for  cruelty  and  oppression,  for 
lust  or  vanity,  the  price  has  to  be  paid  at  last.  *  *  *  Justice  and 
truth  alone  endure  and  live.  Injustice  and  falsehood  may  be  long- 
lived,  but  doomsday  comes  at  last  to  them,  in  French  revolutions  and 
other  terrible  ways." 


the  most 
the  civili- 
ihood  and 

;  thus  we 
on  whose 

irces,  but 
ill  impart 
ult  in  the 
lot  forget 
xultation, 
J  are  pre- 
>r  of  our 
;ntly  veils 

•e  is  none 
•eace  hath 
less  than 
the  ordeal 
he  subtler 

3f  success- 
e  element 
re  still  to 
:al,  social 
:orrosion. 
)f  human 
ent  of  "a 
er  that  is 
.  "Right- 
?le."  An 
in  which 
and  most 
turies  the 
reeds  rise 
lity.  For 
ssion,  for 
istice  and 
be  long- 
tions  and 


V 


The  course  which  an  inquiry  as  to  the  real  stability  of  our  nation 
must  take,  and  the  importance  of  such  inquiry,  are  alike  determined  by 
two  vitally  related  propositions. 

First.  The  supremacy  of  the  moral  sentiment  is  the  essential 
condition  of  national  permanence  and  prosperity.  Second.  Belief 
in  God  is  necessary  to  the  continued  supremacy  of  the  moral  sentiment. 
These  propositions  I  propose  briefly  to  discuss. 

I.    The  supremacy  ok  the  moral  sentiment  is  the  essential 

CONDITION  OF  NATIONAL  PERMANENCE  AND  PROSPERITY. 

In  all  human  knowledge  and  experience  there  is  nothing  so  august 
as  righteousness,  and  there  is  nothing  so  persistent  as  the  pressure  of 
moral  obligation. 

If  history  proves  anything,  it  proves  this:  that  the  nation  which 
sets  itself  against  the  demands  of  moral  law  has  undertaken  a  task  as 
futile  and  as  fatal  as  if  it  should  set  itself  against  the  momentum  of  a 
falling  planet. 

In  law,  in  politics,  in  commerce,  in  social  customs  and  in  educa- 
tion, as  well  as  in  religion,  the  moral  sentiment — the  inward  response 
of  man  to  moral  law — is  the  sound  heart  of  healthy  life  and  the  unfail- 
ing spring  of  vigor  .and  strength. 

I.  The  supremacy  of  the  moral  sentiment  is  necessary  to  the  ex- 
istence and  execution  of  just  laws. 

The  laws  of  a  land  reflect  the  moral  sense  of  the  lawmakers.  Civil 
law  is,  in  large  measure,  utilitarian.  It  must  be  so,  for  civil  law 
takes  cognizance  not  of  sins  but  of  crimes.  But  at  bottom 
all  just  civil  law  rests  on  the  demands  of  moral  law.  The 
specific  laws  of  any  age,  interpreted  by  history,  are  seen 
to  reflect  the  generic  moral  preceptions  of  that  age.  The  execution 
of  law,  too,  is  determined  by  the  average  moral  character  of  the  people 
more  than  it  is  by  their  mere  intelligence.  The  working  law  of  a  com- 
munity is  a  transcript  of  the  public  conscience.  Hence  it  is  that  some- 
times good  laws  are  a  "dead  letter."  What  is  it  that  guarantees  the 
execution  of  i 'il  law?  Is  it  courts  and  police ?  Is  it  army  and  navy? 
No.  Mere  seii- merest  may  facilitate  the  execution  of  law,  but  it  is  the 
moral  sense  which  the  law  expresses,  and  to  which  in  turn  the  law 
appeals,  that  is  the  chief  guaranty  of  the  law's  execution.  Let  the 
moral  sense  of  a  community  be  broken  down  or  temporarily  weakened 
by  passion,  and  civil  anarchy  follows  as  inevitably  as  the  fall  of  a 
building  follows  the  undermining  of  its  foundation.  Partial  and  sug- 
gestive illustrations  of  this  truth  are  furnished  by  such  events  as  the 
well-known  riots  in  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio  and 
Montana  and  Illinois.    In  every  center  of  population  there  are  elements 


1 

'•t 


i/^ 


of  lawlessness  and  forces  of  evil  that  are  ready  to  s|)ring  into  action 
the  moment  the  moral  sense  of  the  community  relaxes  its  vigilance. 

2.  Political  instilntions  arc  n'isc  and  beneficent  only  ivhcn  con- 
science holds  the  seat  of  authority  in  the  hearts  of  the  (>eo(>le. 

We  are  familiar  with  complaints  of  corruption  in  our  politics. 
Making  all  possible  abatements  on  account  of  exaggeration  and  parti- 
sanship, we  must  admit  that  the  complaints  are  not  groundless.  Fraud 
and  venality  in  caucus,  in  convention,  and  at  the  polls  have  brought 
the  honorable  title  of  "politician"  into  only  too  well  deserved  reproach. 
Jobbery  in  Congress  and  State  Legislatures  and  municipal  councils  and 
partisanship  in  courts  have  made  some  ugly  chapters  in  our  nistory. 
From  what  source  do  these  evils  come?  From  ignorance?  In  large 
part,  without  doubt.  From  defects  in  political  method?  To  a  con- 
siderable degree.  But  we  must  confess  that  the  chief  source  is  in 
the  mass  of  the  people.  The  presence  of  demagogues  and  spoilsmen  in 
the  councils  of  the  Nation  is  symptomatic.  They  would  not  be  there 
if  the  popular  conscience  were  not  dull. 

There  is  no  justification  of  the  pessimism  in  which  many  indulge 
with  reference  to  our  political  lendencies.  A  reasonable  familiarity 
with  our  political  history  will  convince  one  that  the  present  compares 
favorably  with  the  past.  But  many  features  of  local  politics  in  our 
country  to-day  emphasize  the  need  of  more  conscience  in  the  discharge 
of  political  duties.  The  moral  sentiment  must  become  more  and  more 
the  controlling  force  in  the  selection  of  candidates  for  office,  in  voting, 
and  in  the  exercise  of  all  political  functions.  The  main  evil  is  im- 
morality. We  need  a  revival  of  political  righteousness.  Our  whole 
political  system  must  be  freshly  ensouled  with  a  vigorous  moral  senti- 
ment, or  evils  will  breed  evils  until  retribution  comes  with  fiery  storm 
of  revolution  and  carnage  to  purge  away  the  sins  of  the  people. 

3.  Commerce  is  dependent  for  its  security  and  permanent  exten- 
sion on  the  supremacy  of  the  moral  sentiment. 

The  priestly  writer  of  the  exile,  describing  the  creation  of  a  co- 
herent and  disciplined  people  out  of  a  horde  of  Hebrew  freedmen  'by 
Moses  in  the  wilderness  of  Sinai,  undoubtedly  commits  an  anachronism 
in  ascribing  to  Moses  a  law  that  could  have  significance  only  in  a  set- 
tled and  commercial  nation;  but  he  formulates  an  ethical  principle 
which  had  been  taught  in  the  divine  school  of  experience :  "Ye  shall 
do  no  unrighteousness  in  judgment,  with  mete-yard,  with  weight,  or^ 
with  measure.  Just  balances,  just  weights,  a  just  ephah,  and  a  just 
hin  shall  ye  have."*  The  prophet  Micah  and  the  DcUeronomist  de- 
nounce deceitful  measures,  and  in  Proverbs  false  weights  are  spoken 
of  as  "an  abomination  to  the  Lord." 


ito  action 
filance. 
vhcn  coH' 

r  politics, 
and  parti- 
is.  Fraud 
e  brought 
reproach, 
uncils  and 
ir  nistory. 
In  large 
lo  a  con- 
Lirce  is  in 
oilsmen  in 
it  be  there 

ly  indulge 

familiarity 

compares 

ics  in  our 

discharge 

and  more 

in  voting, 

;vil  is  im- 

3ur  whole 

loral  senti- 

lery  storm 

pie. 

lent  exten- 

n  of  a  co- 
eedmen  'by 
lachronism 
y  in  a  set- 
1  principle 
"Ye  shall 
weight,  or^ 
and  a  just 
nomist  de- 
are  spoken 


i, 


It  is  not  more  certain  that  God  sets  his  face  against  all  sin  than 
it  is  that  immorality  in  trade  invites  an<l  ultimately  insures  commercial 
disaster.  The  history  of  every  civilized  country  abundantly  illustrates 
the  truth  that  of  all  evils  to  trade  in  the  form  of  natural  disaster,  such 
as  drought,  eartluiuake,  fire,  frost,  and  tempest,  not  one  is  so  harmful 
economically  as  immorality.  Dishonesty  and  fraud  smite  business  with 
paralysis.  A  financial  panic,  marked  as  it  always  is  by  a  general  loosen- 
ing of  confidence  in  men  and  commercial  institutions,  is  the  result  far 
more  of  immorality  than  it  is  of  unwisdom  or  any  other  cause.  The 
enormous  traffic  in  fictitious  values  which  is  carried  on  to-day,  and 
which  at  bottom  is  immoral,  is  as  serious  a  menace  to  material  well- 
being  as  has  ever  existed  in  this  country.  The  most  harmful  disturb- 
ances in  monetary  circles  are  often  directly  traceable  to  this  intrusion 
of  thinly  disguised  gambling  into  almost  every  department  of  trade. 
Legitimate  business  is  grievously  harmed  by  it,  and  the  innocent  suflfer 
while  often  the  guilty  escape. 

The  vast  commerce  of  our  land  is  built  on  faith — that  is,  on 
morality.  Debts  are  guaranteed  far  more  by  the  moral  sentiment  of 
men  than  by  the  provisions  of  law.  Dishonest  men  do  evade  the  pay- 
ment of  debts,  notwithstanding  the  law ;  but  business  is  wounded  by 
their  dishonesty.  Let  the  sense  of  moral  obligation  become  faint  and 
relax  its  grip  on  human  wills  over  a  large  area,  and  the  flood  tide  of 
our  present  commerce  will  shrink  to  a  feeble  rivulet.  The  banks  will 
close,  save  the  faro  banks.  The  factories  will  cease  their  music  of 
throbbing  engine  and  whirring  spindle.  The  fleets  of  the  merchant 
prince  will  idly  rust  at  their  wharves.  Meanwhile  the  gambler  and 
the  pirate  will  have  the  monopoly  of  trade. 

It  is  the  sovereignty  of  righteousness  that  keeps  industry  vigorous, 
that  protects  and  distributes  wealth,  that  insures  to  employer  and  em- 
ployed alike  their  respective  dues,  and  lifts  itself  as  a  secure  barrier 
against  the  encroachments  of  anarchy,  rapine,  and  ruin. 

4.  The  supremacy  of  the  moral  sentiment  preserves  the  beneficent 
institutions  and  relatiotis  of  social  life.  The  sanctity  of  home,  with  its 
elevating  influences  and  wholesome  restraints;  the  purity  and  in- 
violability of  the  marriage  relation ;  the  mutual  ministries  of  filial  and 
fraternal  love ;  the  graces  and  benefactions  of  sweet-hearted  charity — 
all  these  essential  elements  of  a  true  social  life  are  maintained  by  the 
conserving  power  of  the  moral  sentiment. 

The  home  is  the  fountain-head  of  the  nation's  life.  Poison  that, 
and  you  corrupt  all  its  streams  of  action.  Virtuous  homes  are  the 
sources  and  conservators  of  public  morals.  The  laws  of  our  country 
are  made  in  the  nursery,  and  the  influences  which  most  deeply  impress 


!* 


H  jiiui'mi"' 


tlic  mind  and  heart  of  the  chil<l  at  last  turn  the  course  of  empire.  The 
(loom  of  that  natiou  is  already  writ  from  whose  homes  the  authority 
of  moral  law  is  dyitiK  out. 

All  the  beneficent  institutions  of  civilized  society  are  likewise  the 
creation  of  moral  forces.  No  nation  is  prosperous  that  does  not  care 
for  its  weak  and  unfortunate  members.  As  savage  peoples  have  no 
homes,  so  they  have  no  charities.  Iwen  Greece  and  Rome  in  their 
periods  of  highest  civilization  knew  little  of  pity ;  while  among  those 
peoples  where  virtue  is  at  the  lowest  ebb  abundant  and  wisely  directed 
benevolence  is  entirely  wanting.  Moral  weakness  breeds  universal  de- 
crepitude. The  eleemosynary  institutions — the  hospitals,  asylums,  ref- 
uges, and  homes  for  the  orphans  and  the  aged — which  are  the  orna- 
ment and  pride  of  our  land,  arc  the  expressions  of  moral  law  working 
itself  out  in  the  thought  and  feeling  of  the  people.  Immorality  is 
always  selfish ;  and  it  is  always  cruel.  Righteousness  and  mercy  like 
twin  brother  and  sister,  go  through  the  earth  hand  in  hand.  Banish 
the  one,  and  the  other  takes  her  flight.  So  vice  and  selfishness  are 
inseparable. 

5.  The  supremacy  of  the  moral  sentiment  is  essential  to  a  sound 
and  generous  culture. 

That  education  on  the  broadest  scale  is  necessary  to  the  prosperity 
and  permanence  of  a  nation  will  scarcely  be  questioned  in  our  day. 
Human  life,  if  it  is  to  rise  and  remain  above  the  level  of  a  cunning 
bestiality,  demands  knowledge,  discipline,  and  the  symmetrical  develop- 
ment of  all  the  mental  powers.  In  America,  where  suffrage  is  well- 
nigh  universal  and  must  remain  so,  where  every  citizen  is  a  factor  in 
the  government,  the  necessity  of  universal  education  is  demonstrated 
by  the  stern  logic  of  facts.  Government  is  no  longer  the  shepherding 
of  human  herds  by  men  whose  chief  fitness  to  rule  is  a  superior  en- 
dowment of  craft  and  strength.  The  permanence  of  our  political  insti- 
tutions is  conditioned  on  the  culture  of  the  people,  whose  best  thought 
those  institutions  embody  and  express.  But  education  has  its  roots  in 
morality.  It  is  a  familiar  fact  that  Christianity  is  the  mother  of 
schools.  The  great  universities  of  Europe — Oxford  and  Cambridge, 
in  England ;  the  universities  of  Paris,  Prague,  Vienna,  Bologna,  Leip- 
sic,  Berlin,  and  many  others  on  the  Continent — were  founded  by  Chris- 
tian influences.  In  America  there  are  few,  if  any,  colleges  of  impor- 
tance that  do  not  owe  their  existence  to  the  wisdom  and  energy  and 
benevolence  of  Christian  men.  Need  I  name  Harvard  and  Yale  and 
Brown  and  Princeton  and  Vassar  and  Mount  Holyoke  and  Welles- 
ley  ?  The  names  are  legion.  These  noble  schools,  and  scores  of  others, 
are  the  peculiar  product  of  Christian  faith  and  purpose. 


|)ire.    The 
autliority 

<ewise  the 
8  not  care 
s  have  no 
e  in  their 
long  those 
y  directed 
iversal  de- 
lums,  ref- 
the  orna- 
V  worlting 
lorality  is 
mercy  Uke 
1.  Banish 
thness  are 

0  a  sound 

prosperity 

1  our  day. 
a  cunning 
i[  develop- 
je  is  well- 
i  factor  in 
nonstrated 
lepherding 
perior  en- 
Itical  insti- 
st  thought 
ts  roots  in 
mother  of 
Cambridge, 
gna,  Leip- 
1  by  Chris- 

of  impor- 
nergy  and 

Yale  and 
id  Welles- 
1  of  others, 


*t 


But  the  connnon  schools  of  our  land  are  the  outgrowth,  not  of  a 
mere  utilitarian,  hut  of  a  moral  purpose.  It  is  the  virtue  of  a  people, 
and  not  its  si'ifishness,  that  buihis  the  scli(X)lhouse  at  every  crossroad, 
and  conuuands  science  and  art  to  contribute  their  treasures  for  the 
adornment  and  e(iuipiiient  of  high  school  and  academy. 

Go  to  those  sections  of  our  country  where  morality  Is  least,  and 
you  will  find  that  the  schooihouse,  or  the  want  of  it,  indicates  the 
character  of  the  people.  Education  is  a  cau.se  of  strengthening  virtue ; 
but  it  is  also  a  result.  Destroy  the  supremacy  of  conscience,  and  you 
cut  up  culture  by  the  nxjts. 

In  a  word,  all  that  is  greatest  and  best  in  the  life  of  nations  as 
well  as  men  is  the  organic  product  of  moral  ideas  and  purposes.  The 
existence  and  execution  of  law,  the  permanence  and  efficiency  of  polit- 
ical institutions,  the  health  and  stability  of  commerce,  the  soundness  of 
social  and  domestic  life,  and  the  breadth  and  vigor  of  education  are 
founded  on  virtue.  All  these  are  essential  conditions  and  elements  of 
national  prosperity  and  strength,  and  the  supremacy  of  the  moral  senti- 
ment is  the  fundamental  condition  of  their  existence. 

II.  Belief  in  God  is  neci£ssaky  to  the  continued  supremacy 
OF  the  moral  sentiment. 

This  proposition  is  vigorously  disputed  by  a  small  but  respectable 
school  of  writers  on  ethics  which  illumines  the  present  day.  Few  prac- 
tical men,  however,  without  special  theories  to  maintain,  who  look  at 
life  with  serious  and  unprejudiced  eyes,  have  any  doubts  at  this  point. 
Theism,  broadly  conceived,  and  practical  morals  stand  or  fall  together. 
It  is  no  contradiction  of  this  truth  to  admit  that  individual  men  may 
be  avowed  atheists  and  yet  not  be  immoral.  Many  excellent  men  owe 
more  to  their  moral  antecedents  and  environment  than  they  are  aware 
of,  or  perhaps  are  willing  to  acknowledge.  The  atheist  who  points  with 
consc'ous  prid^to  his  virtuous  life  in  proof  of  his  contention  that  belief 
in  God  is  not  essential  to  virtue  forgets  that  he  was  born  and  nurtured 
in  an  atmosphere  impregnated  with  religious  faith ;  that  he  is  but- 
tressed on  every  side  by  customs  and  laws  and  institutions  which  are 
the  efflorescence  of  faith  in  God  in  the  hearts  of  many  generations; 
and  that  the  very  virtue  which  he  boasts  is  the  fruit  of  truths  which 
he  denies. 

But  this  question  is  not  to  be  settled  by  appeal  to  individual  cases. 
It  demands  a  broader  basis  of  induction.  Religion  is  but  the  develop- 
ment of  man's  sense  of  God.  Religion  and  morality,  when  religion  be- 
comes rationalized,  are  not  separable.  Lord  Selbume  jiistly  remarked : 
"Experience,  on  the  large  scale,  shows  that  men  who  disregard  the 
religious  cannot  generally  be  trusted  to  pay  regard  to  the  moral  sense. 


i  kwUueitiJip. ' 


A  moral  sense  not  believed  in  can  never  supply  a  practical  founda- 
tion for  morality.  On  the  other  hand,  a  moral  sense  believed  in  is  (in 
reality)  itself  religion — possibly  inarticulate,  but  religion  still." 

It  is  not  my  purpose  now  to  lead  you  into  any  philosophical  dis- 
cussion of  the  relation  which  morality  sustains  to  Theism,  but  to  sug- 
gest in  few  words  three  important  lines  of  argument  in  proof  of  the 
proposition  that  belief  in  God  is  necessary  to  the  continued  supremacy 
of  the  moral  sentiment.  These  are  the  historical,  the  metaphysical,  and 
the  practical. 

I.  The  historical  argument.  History,  ancient  and  inodern,  estab- 
lishes with  infinite  detail  of  illustration  the  truth  that  the  highest  moral- 
ity in  the  mass  of  men  always  co-exists  with  the  most  vital  and  intelli- 
gent faith  in  God.  The  experience  of  the  Hebrew  people  is  an  out- 
standing example  the  force  of  which  is  not  weakened,  but  rather  is 
strengthened,  by  the  rewriting  of  Hebrew  history  necessitated  by  the 
findings  of  Biblical  criticism.  The  decline  of  religion  in  republican 
Rome  was  the  beginning  of  the  frightful  immorality  and  the  deprava- 
tion of  social  life  in  the  Rome  of  the  emperors.  The  coming  of  Chris- 
tianity into  the  world  brought  a  new  influx  of  righteousness  bec:.i!se  it 
was  a  new  awakening  of  belief  in  a  moral  Governor  of  the  world. 

I  quote  again  from  Lord  Selburne :  "Morality  has  not  flourished, 
amongst  either  civilized  or  uncivilized  men,  when  religious  belief  has 
been  generally  lost  or  utterly  debased.  Not  to  dwell  upon  the  case 
of  savage  races,  the  modern  Hindoos  and  Chinese  have  long  been  civil- 
ized, but  are  certainly  not  moral;  nor  can  anything  worse  be  con- 
ceived than  the  morality  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans  at  the  height  of 
their  civilization.  *  *  *  After  their  intellectual  cultivation  had 
taken  its  tone  from  the  irreligious  or  agnostic  materialism  of  Epi- 
curus, the  Romans  became  what  is  described  in  the  first  chapter  of  the 
Epistle  of  the  Romans." 

If  we  consider  particular  nations  of  modern  times,  or  particular 
periods  in  the  life  of  any  single  nation,  we  find  that  the  morality  of 
the  people  steadily  corresponds  to  the  strength  and  intelligence  of  their 
belief  in  God. 

Archbishop  Tillotson  said :  "If  God  were  not  a  necessary  Being 
of  Himself,  He  might  almost  seem  to  be  made  for  the  use  and  benefit 
of  men."  Voltaire,  who  was  born  in  the  year  in  which  Tillotson  died, 
said:  "Si  Dieti  n'existait  pas,  it  faudrait  I'inventer."  ("If  God  did 
not  exist,  it  would  be  necessary  to  invent  Him.")  A  profound  truth  is 
suggested  in  these  words.  It  has  always  been  true  of  man  that,  as 
Emerson  put  it,  "himself  from  God  he  could  not  free." 


itiMdtmsmiriimummismimit^- 


tttiJm 


\ 


I  • 


I  founda- 
in  is  (in 
11." 

ihical  dis- 
xt  to  sug- 
lof  of  the 
upremacy 
isical,  and 

;rn,  estab- 
est  moral- 
nd  intelli- 
is  an  out- 

rather  is 
:ed  by  the 
republican 
;  deprava- 

of  Chris- 
bec:^i:se  it 
vorld. 

flourished, 
belief  has 
1  the  case 
been  civil- 
ie  be  con- 
height  of 
nation  had 
m  of  Epi- 
pter  of  the 

particular 
norality  of 
ice  of  their 

sary  Being 
and  benefit 
otson  died, 
[f  God  did 
ind  truth  is 
an  that,  as 


.  V, 


ft 

The  great  characters  who  securely  command  the  homage  of  the 
world  were  formed  under  the  influence  and  inspired  by  the  energy  of 
a  religious  faith.  The  men  who  signed  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence and  framed  the  Constitution  of  the  infant  Republic  were  what 
they  were  in  strength  and  loftiness  of  moral  purpose  because  of  their 
belief  in  a  personal,  sovereign  Deity.  The  communities  in  which  God 
was  recognized  and  worshipped  by  the  mass  of  the  people  were,  and 
always  have  been,  the  communities  in  which  property  was  safest,  vice 
least  practised,  and  the  virtues  of  honor,  chastity,  and  benevolence  most 
widely  exemplified. 

2.  The  victaphysical  argument.  The  moral  sense  in  man  is  the 
witness  of  a  personal  God.  The  moral  imperative  of  conscience,  how- 
ever authoritative  it  may  be,  is  not  ultimate,  for  man  Is  finite.  He  is 
dependent  on  a  will  outside  and  above  his  individual  volition.  He  finds 
in  the  physical  imiverse  about  him  a  vast  system  of  laws.  To  these 
laws  he  is  subject  long  before  he  recognizes  and  comprehends  them. 
He  looks  within  himself  and  finds  an  instinctive  sense  of  moral  obliga- 
tion. Whence  does  it  come?  What  does  it  mean?  Psychology  is 
giving  us  the  details  of  the  process  by  which  it  is  developed,  but  does 
not  go  back  to  its  primal  spring.  The  development  of  the  moral  sense 
is  profoundly  affected  by  heredity,  by  environment,  and  by  training; 
but  it  is  not  wholly  accounted  for  by  these.  Man's  sense  of  right  is 
fundamentally  a  perception  of  moral  laiv.  He  discovers  that  the  reign 
of  law  prevails  not  only  in  his  physical  organization  and  environment 
but  also  in  the  sphere  of  his  intellectual  and  voluntary  life.  His  per- 
ception of  moral  obligation  is  persistent.  He  may  disregard  it;  he 
may  deaden  and  diminish  it ;  but,  apparently,  he  cannot  destroy  it  and 
remain  man.  Nor  can  he  destroy  those  moral  laws  which  are  the  ob- 
jects of  his  perception  and  change  the  distinctions  of  right  and  wrong. 
These  distinctions  are  not  factitious  or  accidental.  They  are  eternal. 
They  are  the  very  "constitution  of  things."  Civil  law  he  may  turn  upside 
down,  but  right  and  wrong  are  irreversible.  Moral  law  revealed  in  con- 
science is  as  much  a  fact  as  the  law  of  gravitation.  But  law  is  meaning- 
less among  personalities  apart  from  a  law-giver.  In  its  last  analysis 
law  is  the  expression  of  will.  Man  is  a  personality.  "Will  is  the  spinal 
column  of  personality."  Conscience  witnesses  of  moral  law;  that  is, 
of  moral  will ;  that  is,  of  a  personality  not  man,  higher  than  man ; 
that  is,  God.  A  resolute  reason,  starting  from  the  moral  sense  in  man, 
may  climb  the  giddy  height  that  leads  up  to  a  personal  Deity. 

The  moral  sense  is  the  very  summit  and  crown  of  man's  nature. 
If  there  is  no  God,  then  man  is  an  unfulfilled  prophecy,  and  his  very 
nature  is  a  lie.    Atheism  is  self-stultification.    It  paralyzes  at  last  the 


ft 


whole  moral  nature.    It  discrowns  and  dethrones  conscience  and  leaves 
the  soul  a  chaotic  empire  in  which  is  no  king  and  no  law. 

3.  The  practical  argument.  The  experience  of  life  demonstrates 
the  inability  of  mankind  at  large  successfully  to  resist  the  constant 
pressure  and  frequent  sharp  onsets  of  selfishness  and  passion  except  as 
conscience  is  reinforced  by  a  recognition  of  those  sanctions  of  moral 
law  which  are  involved  in  the  existence  and  continuous  supervision  of 
a  moral  law-giver.  The  bad  man  is  restrained  from  the  utmost  license 
and  madness  of  vice,  and  the  good  man  is  sustained  under  the  heaviest 
disappointment  of  moral  hopes  and  the  most  crushing  defeat  of  moral 
purposes,  by  the  conviction  which  roots  itself  in  belief  in  God  and  the 
confidence  that  at  last  right  is  might.  "Careless  seems  the  great 
Avenger,"  but  *  *  *  "behind  the  dim  unknown  standeth  God 
within  the  shadow,  keeping  watch  above  His  own." 

Carlyle  testily  said :  "Experience  is  a  hard  school,  but  fools  will 
learn  in  no  other."  Experience  unequivocally  teaches,  and  because  of 
almost  incorrigible  human  folly  teaches  with  monotonous  reiteration, 
the  truth  that  when  a  people  loses  its  faith  in  God,  vice  and  wickedness 
come  in  like  a  flood  to  overwhelm  the  executors  of  law  and  choke  the 
springs  of  pure  life.  With  loss  of  faith  in  God  comes  that  numbness 
of  conscience  and  blindness  of  moral  perception  which  is  the  sure 
premonition  of  disaster — comes  that  fatal  hour  where  there  is 

"Not  an  ear  in  court  or  market  for  the  low,  foreboding  cry 

Of  those  crises,  God's  stern  winnowers,  from  whose  feet  earth's  chaff 

must  fly; 
Never  seems  the  choice  momentous  till  the  judgment  has  passed  by." 

Materialistic  philosophy  has  elaborated  a  theory  of  ethics  which 
it  offers  to  the  world  as  an  infallible  science  and  guide  of  conduct. 
But  materialism  is  unable  to  produce  a  robust  and  tenacious  virtue. 
Conscience  has  lasting  power  only  as  it  is  a  spiritual  fact,  and  not  a 
mere  resultant  of  nerve  impressions,  and  only  as  the  moral  law  to 
which  it  testifies  is  believed  to  have  sanctions  guaranteed  by  an  om- 
nicient  and  holy  God ;  and  where  conscience  has  no  power  there  is  no 
real  morality. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  much  of  the  vice  and  crime  and 
mania  for  suicide  in  the  present  time  is  the  harvest  from  the  sowing 
of  materialistic  teachers  a  generation  ago.  The  people  are  uncon- 
sciously logical,  and  push  conclusions  into  practice.  The  student  who, 
by  his  antecedents  and  condition  in  life,  is  established  in  virtuous  habit 
thinks  out  his  godless  scheme  of  the  world  and  keeps  himself  mainly 
within  the  realm  of  theory.    But  the  multitude  that  thinks  little,  and 


nd  leaves 

lonstrates 
constant 
except  as 
of  moral 
•vision  of 
ist  license 
;  heaviest 
of  moral 
d  and  the 
the  great 
leth  God 

fools  will 
ecause  of 
siteration, 
ickedness 
choke  the 
numbness 
the  sure 


•th's  chaff 

issed  by." 

lies  which 
t  conduct, 
us  virtue, 
and  not  a 
al  law  to 
)y  an  om- 
here  is  no 

:rime  and 
he  sowing 
re  uncon- 
ident  who, 
uous  habit 
elf  mainly 
little,  and 


• 


ieels  and  acts  much,  when  it  thoroughly  learns  the  theories  of  the 
atheist  is  prone  to  put  them  in  practice.  The  Encyclopaedists  abolished 
God  and  denied  immortality,  and  the  mob  in  Paris  washed  its  hands 
in  blood  and  danced  the  "Carmagnole"  in  the  streets. 

Weaken  faith  in  God,  and  inevitably  you  weaken  the  safegfuards 
of  virtue.  Tell  the  criminal,  meditating  a  deed  of  violence,  that  there 
is  no  God,  and  you  help  on  his  murderous  purpose.  Tell  the  defaulter 
and  the  thief  that  there  is  no  all-seeing  eye,  and  you  stimulate  the 
impulse  to  evil.  The  demands  of  practical  life  are  a  crucial  test  of 
theories  of  ethics.  One  evening  D'Alembert  and  Condorcet  were  dining 
with  Voltaire.  They  proposed  to  converse  on  Atheism.  Voltaire 
stopped  them,  saying:  "Wait  till  my  servants  have  withdrawn.  I  do 
not  wish  to  have  my  throat  cut  to-night."  Bluflf  Dr.  Johnson  once 
said :  "If  the  infidel  does  not  believe  what  he  teaches,  then  he  is  a  liar. 
If  he  does  believe  what  he  asserts,  why,  then  let  us  count  our  spoons!" 

Experience  demonstrates  that  belief  in  God  restrains  the  evil  im- 
pulses of  mankind  and  promotes  virtue  and  social  order.  The  per- 
manence and  purity  of  that  belief  are  necessary  to  the  continued 
supremacy  of  the  moral  sentiment  in  the  world. 

It  may  be  trite,  but  only  because  it  is  true,  that  if  our  nation  is 
to  endure  and  prosper ;  if  it  is  to  fulfill  its  high  mission  and  accomplish 
the  glorious  but  difficult  task  which  its  rapid  growth  and  its  peculiar 
position  among  the  nations  of  the  earth  are  pressing  upon  it ;  if  it  is  to 
achieve  a  career  commensurate  with  the  promise  of  its  brief  but  mag- 
nificent past,  it  must  be  by  steady  conformity  to  those  moral  laws 
which  condition  sound  and  successful  life,  by  the  preservation  of  a 
private  and  public  virtue  which  no  increase  of  wealth  can  debauch 
and  no  lust  of  power  can  undermine;  and  this  will  be  only  by  the 
maintenance  in  the  hearts  of  the  people  of  that  faith  in  Divine  Provi- 
dence which  sustained  our  fathers  in  the  darkness  and  pain  of  the 
nation's  birth-struggle,  which  cheered  the  hearts  and  nerved  the  reso- 
lution of  the  men  who  revived  the  heroism  of  the  past  in  the  four 
years*  war  for  the  preservation  of  the  Union,  and  which  through 
every  perplexing  and  perilous  period  in  our  national  life  has  been  the 
inspiration  to  duty  and  the  stimulus  to  hope  of  all  patriots.  While  faith 
in  God  survives  there  will  be  robust  character  and  invincible  strengrth. 
While  faith  survives  there  will  be  virtuous  statesmen  and  just  laws. 
While  faith  survives  we  shall  securely  live  in  the  confidence  that  "our 
helm  is  given  up  to  a  better  guidance  than  our  own — the  course  of 
events  is  quite  too  strong  for  any  helmsman — and  our  little  wherry  is 
taken  in  tow  by  the  ship  of  the  Great  Admiral,  which  knows  the  way 
and  has  the  force  to  draw  men  and  states  and  planets  to  their  good." 


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14 

The  function  of  the  Home  Missionary  Society  is  not  to  propagate 
a  sect  or  build  up  any  narrow  ecclesiastical  institution,  but  to  carry 
the  moral  forces  of  Christianity  into  all  the  dark  places  of  our  land,  to 
witness  for  God  in  every  portion  of  our  enlarging  territory,  and  to 
moralize  and  spiritualize  the  life  of  the  nation,  that  it  may  stand 
strong  among  the  nations  of  the  earth  with  the  strength  that  time  does 
not  waste,  and  that  it  may  fulfill  its  sublime  ideal  of  "America  enlight- 
ening the  world." 

We  draw  near  the  close  of  the  century.  Let  us  pray  with  our 
American  poet-prophet — 

"Our  Father's  God,  from  out  whose  hand 
The  centuries  fall  like  grains  of  sand, 
We  meet  to-day,  united,  free, 
And  loyal  to  our  land  and  Thee, 
To  thank  Thee  for  the  era  done, 
And  trust  Thee  for  the  opening  one! 

"O  make  Thou  us,  through  centuries  long, 
In  peace  secure,  in  justice  strong; 
Around  our  gift  of  freedom  draw 
The  safeguards  of  Thy  righteous  law; 
And,  cast  in  some  diviner  mold, 
Let  the  new  cvcle  shame  the  old!" 


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